DaVita (NYSE:DVA) Raised to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Key Points

• DaVita has been upgraded from a "hold" to a "buy" rating by Wall Street Zen, signaling increased confidence in the stock's performance.
• Despite the upgrade, analysts from Barclays and Bank of America have lowered their target prices for DaVita, indicating varied perspectives on its future potential.
• In its latest earnings report, DaVita exceeded expectations with $2.95 earnings per share and $3.38 billion in revenue, demonstrating robust financial performance.

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of DaVita (NYSE:DVA - Free Report) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Saturday.

Several other equities analysts have also recently weighed in on DVA. Truist Financial set a $148.00 price objective on DaVita in a report on Friday, August 8th. Barclays cut their target price on DaVita from $169.00 to $160.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 7th. Finally, Bank of America cut their target price on DaVita from $145.00 to $140.00 and set an "underperform" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 10th. Three research analysts have rated the stock with a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Reduce" and a consensus price target of $158.00.

DaVita Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of NYSE:DVA traded up $2.27 during trading on Friday, hitting $130.27. 704,783 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 703,704. DaVita has a 52 week low of $126.07 and a 52 week high of $179.60. The company has a current ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 23.18. The company has a market cap of $9.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.92 and a beta of 1.13. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $137.40 and a 200-day moving average price of $141.09.

DaVita (NYSE:DVA - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 5th. The company reported $2.95 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.70 by $0.25. DaVita had a return on equity of 369.39% and a net margin of 6.35%.The business had revenue of $3.38 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $3.36 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $2.00 EPS. DaVita's revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. DaVita has set its FY 2025 guidance at 10.200-11.300 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that DaVita will post 10.76 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider James O. Hearty sold 2,351 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $150.00, for a total transaction of $352,650.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 26,038 shares in the company, valued at $3,905,700. This represents a 8.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. 1.50% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On DaVita

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in DVA. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in shares of DaVita by 27.2% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 32,545 shares of the company's stock worth $4,867,000 after purchasing an additional 6,951 shares in the last quarter. Balyasny Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of DaVita during the 4th quarter worth approximately $322,000. Occudo Quantitative Strategies LP acquired a new position in shares of DaVita during the 4th quarter worth approximately $290,000. Mufg Securities Americas Inc. acquired a new position in shares of DaVita during the 4th quarter worth approximately $100,000. Finally, Quantinno Capital Management LP increased its holdings in shares of DaVita by 61.8% during the 4th quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 28,147 shares of the company's stock worth $4,209,000 after acquiring an additional 10,753 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.12% of the company's stock.

About DaVita

DaVita Inc provides kidney dialysis services for patients suffering from chronic kidney failure in the United States. The company operates kidney dialysis centers and provides related lab services in outpatient dialysis centers. It also offers outpatient, hospital inpatient, and home-based hemodialysis services; operates clinical laboratories that provide routine laboratory tests for dialysis and other physician-prescribed laboratory tests for ESRD patients; and management and administrative services to outpatient dialysis centers.